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Associated Press - November 6, 2009 4:15 PM ET
DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware prosecutors are appealing the reversal of a conviction and death sentence in the murder of a college student to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state Supreme Court overturned James E. Cooke Jr.'s death penalty conviction in July. The court said Cooke's right to a fair trial in the killing of Lindsay Bonistall was violated when his lawyers sought a verdict of guilty but mentally ill. Defense lawyers settled on that strategy even though Cooke strongly disagreed and repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
Bonistall was a University of Delaware sophomore from White Plains, N.Y.
Cooke was convicted of breaking into Bonistall's apartment in 2005 and raping and strangling her before placing her body in a bathtub and setting the apartment on fire.
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